Evidence of an Impact

Impactite, Libyan Desert, Egypt.Libyan Desert Glass formed when a meteorite slammed into the Sahara Desert, melting sand and rock and spraying it into the air. As it cooled it formed lumps of glass that were strewn across the desert. Libyan Desert Glass can be cut and polished and is used to make jewellery. Image: Heath WarwickSource: Museum Victoria

Impactite, Quarry Alte Burg, South of Nordlinger, Germany.
Imagine a meteorite one kilometre across! One this size struck the Earth near Ries in Germany 15 million years ago. The impact formed a crater 24 kilometres wide and caused the surface rocks to melt. Fragments of green impact glass (moldavites) have been found over 400 km away in the Czech Republic. Image: Heath Warwick Source: Museum Victoria

Impactite, Mount Darwin, Tasmania,
Australia Darwin Glass is found in and around a crater near Mount Darwin in western Tasmania. The crater is about 1 km across, but is eroded and difficult to recognise. The abundance of glass is unusual for such a small crater and suggests the meteorite was travelling very fast on impact.Image: Heath WarwickSource: Museum Victoria

Iron Meteorite Canyon Diablo, Coconino County, Arizona, U.S.A
This iron meteorite was collected from near the Barringer crater in Arizona in 1891. Once thought to be volcanic, the crater’s origin was settled in the 1960s with the discovery that rocks at the site had been changed by a huge impact that could only have been a meteorite strike. Image: Heath WarwickSource: Museum Victoria

E 11171, Sikhote-Alin, Russia (formerly part of USSR), Primorskiy Kray, Sikhote-Alin (Siberia) The only crater-forming event observed by humans occurred on the morning of 12 February 1947. Witnesses saw an iron meteorite break up over the Sikhote-Alin Mountains in eastern Russia and crash into the forest, forming 106 craters. Thousands of twisted iron fragments, like shrapnel, have been recovered. Image: Heath WarwickSource: Museum Victoria

Henbury Iron SpecimenAbout 4000 years ago a large iron meteorite broke up in the atmosphere over central Australia. Surviving fragments from the break-up have dimpled surfaces sculpted by their fiery journey through the atmosphere. Very large fragments exploded on impact, forming twelve craters and showering twisted meteorite metal around the site. Image: Rodney StartSource: Museum Victoria

Main crater at Henbury, Central Australia.This photograph shows the inside of the crater, which is overgrown by scrub.Image: Dermot Henry Source: Museum Victoria

A very large meteorite striking the Earth blasts itself to pieces and excavates a crater. The impacted rocks may melt and splash over a wide area, or form an impact breccia (suevite) within the crater. Shock waves from the impact leave ripple marks (shatter cones) in the surrounding rocks.